Femi Lazarus, pastor and Pan-African media architect, argues that perception is shaped by micro-experiences like family and culture. He diagnoses Africa's systemic pain as engineered poverty, illiteracy, and colonial psychological wounds, calling for bold leadership and cultural transformation to rebuild African narratives from within.
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There are men who build platforms, and then there are men who build movements. Quietly, deliberately, across a continent that has learned to distrust its own storytellers. Femi Lazarus is the latter. A Pan-Africanist at his core, he has spent a lifetime championing a singular conviction: that Africa's narrative belongs to Africans. That conviction gave birth to Voice of Africa, a platform built by Africans for Africans to tell their own story. It also gave birth to two sanctuaries for lives the world had written off: the Free at Last Rehabilitation Center, a home for restoration, and the Gilead Trauma Recovery Center, dedicated to healing what silence and shame have broken. He is also the lead pastor of Light Nation Church, a global congregation and a spiritual voice shaping the more the moral and intellectual compass of a generation. His influence stretches across the full architecture of media, through White House Studios and record label Ambience TV and a slate of upcoming film productions. He is engineering the media infrastructure Africa was once told it lacked the talent to build, doing quietly and deliberately the work of reshaping how Africa sees itself and how the world sees Africa. That conviction bleeds into his writing. In the last 2 years, he has authored 35 books, including the bestselling titles, Audacity of Faith, A Crowd That Wants Small Things, and Seeing Beyond the Smokescreen. Works that have reoriented how a generation thinks about ambition, obedience, and the cost of clarity. As a disruptive leader, he coaches and mentors leaders of organizations and nations through the prestigious Femi Lazarus Mentorship Academy. As a business development strategist, he helps institutions build sustainability, scale exponentially, and blaze trails where none existed through Femi Lazarus Consulting. But belief for him was never meant to stay inside a pulpit. Beneath all of it sits a quieter conviction that no child's future should be decided by their address. Through his philanthropic initiatives, he funds students from primary school through private university, many of them sitting in lecture halls today, who once had no reason to believe they'd get there. He is a pastor, an author, a builder, a philanthropist. But more than any title, he is a man convinced that Africa's smokescreens are meant to be seen through. This is Declassified. And this is Femi Lazarus.
Hey guys, if you're watching this now, that means you have ears for intelligent conversations and this is exactly where you want to be. We have conversations that will get you at the edge of your seat, and this particular one is one you don't want to miss. I, I have a very honest request from you as we start this conversation. I'd like for you to like this broadcast. That helps us to get this to as many people as possible. You know, we can work together getting intelligent conversations to people all over the world. And I'd like you to drop your comment. Let us know how you feel. Let's know how this has impacted you. And one thing you want to do also is to subscribe to this YouTube channel, as this will notify you whenever we're bringing up videos, um, podcasts, or any other kind of video that can be a blessing to your heart. I look forward to having you again and again on this show. Thank you so much. Hey friends, I want to specially welcome you to this first episode of Solo Declassified. This is the first of its kind we're having on the Declassified platform, and, um, yeah, it's going to be Solo Declassified where I'm going to be answering a couple of questions. And we are putting this together from the most common question we've received, uh, either via mail or via inbox, and the team have been able to gather this question, and I'm going to be trying to answer those questions. Some of these questions will bring you further and further closer to, um, the things that we do here on the Classify platform and the reason for, um, the Classify platform. So let's go. One of the quite dicey question that people have asked, and I think might be quite difficult to really answer, is the question of reality. Sometimes you want to describe reality as what can be seen, felt, and touched. Which in a way looks reasonable until you find out that there are also other aspects of reality that can't be seen and touched, but yet they are real. Um, you, you come talk about the question of emotions, for instance. What you feel, um, is a reality, and yet you can't see it with your physical eyes, and you can't also touch it. But the fact that they are felt is also a reality. So I think reality as a subject goes beyond just sight and the material world as we have it. I think the subject of reality talks about the subject of everything that is, whether seen or invisible, whether can be touched or can be felt. And what that necessarily means is that the subject of reality goes beyond what you know. So what that means is that let's take the universe for instance, the material universe of what you call the observable universe. You look at the Milky Way, the galaxies, the constellation of the stars, but you see that inside that big cocoon there are cocoons. Um, I try to teach this and explain this in my mentorship academy where I was showing the students about the different realities that exist around us. For instance, we're in the planet called Earth, but in that planet there are continents, in the continent there are countries, in the countries there are counties or states, in the states there are— in some places there are tribes. And everyone is given the opportunity to experience reality at their micro level. So what you see as reality is shaped by the event at the micro level of your experience. For instance, whatever goes on in your exposure to, um, to a family, or what you see in your family, is going to go a long way to determine how you perceive reality, how you perceive love, how you perceive pain, how you perceive emotions, how you perceive people, how you perceive other people's culture. What that means is that what happens in your microenvironment is that your idea of reality is shaped in that form, whether your exposure to church, whether your exposure to your family, whether your exposure to your school. So what that does is that every micro experience that we have introduced us to the way we are going to go further to perceive reality. So we perceive reality based on our micro experiences, but reality in itself is far bigger and larger than the micro experience. And that's the reason why if I give you an illustration today, And I say, imagine a ghost step into your room right now in the middle of the night while you're asleep. Just think of it. You woke up to ease yourself, and the next thing standing in front of you is a ghost. Now, we all are going to interpret that statement based on our exposure to what shapes our reality. So the African man is going to imagine— and tell me if I got it right— you're going to imagine somebody wrapped in white clothes with some powder all over the face, possibility of some cutting woods, stuck to the nose and ears, and then standing and some weird sounds.
Why?
Because the movies you were exposed to has shaped your idea of that reality. And then maybe for someone from the other part of the world is going to also experience, is going to interpret that illustration based on what the movies they have projected, whether somebody in suit or someone with some pale face and all that. So what happens is that our exposure, the things we're exposed to, will further go ahead to shape the way we see and perceive life in itself. So what that means is none of us sees reality. We only interpret reality based on our lens. Um, somebody might be making a joke and the reality is that a joke, and for somebody who is going through a phase is interpreting that joke in the respect— in respect to what they're going through, and they cannot interpret it as a joke. It can offend them and it can do all those things. So what I'm saying is that your approach to life, the way you interpret the things that you see, depends on the exposure that you have. So in other words, we don't see reality. We can't see all that is real. We interpret it based on our exposure and our experience. And what that means is that that has the tendency to cast limitations on our interpretation. This is one very interesting conversation I've gotten all the time. Um, let me start by giving you a bit of light here. I believe without any doubt that Christianity is not a religion. I'm going to tell you what that means. Um, the implication of viewing Christianity as a religion is that you're going to put everything Christ came and died for in the position where it's just ruffling feathers with all other religions. What religion does is that it gives men forms of worship and approach to try to reach a deity that they cannot see, just some vague reality. But Christianity is far more than that. It's far more than some modus operandi and some facade of worship. Christianity is far deeper than that. Christianity in itself is a lifestyle. Um, let's, let's think about it, and this is highly debatable. And one of the things you also should learn is that in an intellectual conversation, you can debate intellectually. If you have to bring your Emotions fought in every intellectual conversation. You have gotten to the peak of your intelligence. So where intelligence ends, emotions will have to flow. So this is it. And I mean, I mean negative emotions. Um, if you look at the concept of everything, what I believe is that you look at the entire flow of the Bible. In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth. Verse 2 says the earth was without form and void, and darkness upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And in verse 3, Bible says God said, let there be light, and there was light. You go down to Genesis chapter number 1 from verse 25, 26 26, God began to make everything after their kind. God made the cattle after his kind, made the creeping things after his kind, made the beasts of the earth after his kind. And in Genesis 1:26, God said, let us make man in our own image. In other words, let us make something that resembles us. In other words, if you look at the flow of that word there, let us make our kind. Now that is very, very interesting because I'm trying to drive you to a flow. If you look at that text, there's a clue in Genesis 1, verse 1 and 2. God made the heavens and the earth, and the earth was dark and void and Darkness upon the face of the deep in Genesis 1:3, God said, let there be light. Where God was, was intact. The place that was— that we understand was made for man was destroyed. So the essence of God making us in the first place was to put us here so that whatever heaven is, whatever protocols organizes it that stops darkness from destroying it, from invading and colonizing the culture is what exactly I've created man to come do here. That's the concept. So when man lost that place in the garden, darkness filled all the place over again. And then everything Christ came to do when He came to die for our sins was to come and deal with the problem of sin, which was the permission to darkness. And you see, oftentimes I think people, people get this wrong. The idea in itself is to put man here that your presence here with God operating through us, we are going to stop the works of darkness from invading. Because we saw in Genesis 1:2, when darkness came to the earth, it destroyed, it pulled down, and Bible says, used the word tohu bohu, everything was shapeless and formless. So the idea is this, that the man carrying Christ will be able to operate here, and the degree to which he knows who he is, is a degree to which darkness will be stopped from prevailing in this place. So look at the way Isaiah 60 puts it. And God— Isaiah 60 from verse 1, it says, arise, shine, for your light is come. If you read Message, he said, get out of bed. All right, he said, arise, shine, for your light is come, for the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Then went on to say, for behold, the darkness will cover the earth and gross darkness the people, but the light of the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And kings will come to— Gentiles will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. But the word there is a very, very, very Interesting word. In Isaiah 60, it didn't say darkness will cover the earth, it said the darkness. So it means that we have an enemy who has a goal from the beginning that has not changed, and we also have a God who has an objective from the beginning that has not changed. The darkness will cover the earth, and the intention is to colonize culture, colonize people, invade spaces and all that. But he said, if you arise and shine. So sometimes I feel this is the mistake many Christians make, and the mistake is this: all the prophecies about last days are prophecies of doom and there's nothing we can do about it. So all we have to do is just to sit down, fold our arms and relax and all that. And when I look at that, I feel that is not consistent with the spirit of the scriptures. Because if you read a text like Revelation chapter number 5, where John had a vision and he was standing there in the— let me use the word paraphrased— the court of heaven. And then a book was taken with a scroll and then several seals, 7 seals seals on it. And there was a voice, who is worthy to open the book and to break the scrolls thereof? And he wept because none was found worthy to do that. What was contained in that scroll will later be unveiled later as the us writers of oka poka leaves, you began to see different things. If you are not a Bible student, I have teachings on this and you can just go Telegram and download it. Now this is the reason why John wept is because something was about to unfold on the face of the earth that will not be on that has not been revealed, and that thing must not catch us unawares. So you look at the concept of God in himself is that he wants his children to know certain things so that they can be able to do something about it. And I tell you, an average religious Christian probably doesn't even have an idea of what we're dealing with in the world right now. When you look at the subject of sin, at the decadence around the world, what comes to your mind is the possibility of maybe the somebody is lying, somebody is fornicating, somebody is— which I'm not saying that those things in themselves are to be considered small, but what I'm saying to you is that you probably have no idea how dark our world is. And I think I have observed that many Christians, when they speak, even in the religious argument and banters and all that, I look at them with a sense of pity because you can still see see that innocence. You can still see that person sounding authoritative but is yet to be met with several disappointments in what he thinks is right and what he thinks is going well. You probably have no idea what is going on around the world. I bet you don't. You have no idea about children trafficking, children rituals, and these are things that have been said by whistleblowers around the world. If you look at 2 Corinthians 10 from verse 4, Message translation, the world is unprincipled. It is dog eat dog out there. Many of you volunteer for organizations that have learned to have excellent facade, beautiful pictures. This is what we are doing, we are NGO, we are doing all those things. You have no idea about the blood drinking ritual, the homosexual orgies, and the things going on around the world. And people who have learned to master the art of presenting something to you that looks so cool, giving you what to believe, giving you who to love, giving you who to hate, giving you who to fight, giving you who to side with. You probably have no idea. And that's why I think many Christians, in their deception of not knowing what is going on around the world, lock themselves in church walls and believe that everything going on there is all there and that's as far as God wants us to go? You lie. The purpose of light is not in the midst of light. The purpose of light is in the midst of darkness. I've seen so much noise. Why will AFL interview Joshua Mapunga? Why will AFL do this? I said, you guys are not so smart, are you? You have data. What is the question that can take someone who is once a Christian or who was once a Christian, who— what are the questions in their mind that were unanswered that can take them into the world, that can make them become what they are, now begin to doubt the idea of the God of the Bible. Do you understand what that journey is? And do you also know those who are on that, on their way to that journey in your shining, beautiful churches with the loud music, who are questioning their faith and questioning the justice system and questioning the reality of God and looking at history that can't be denied and looking at the things and asking questions. If God is God, why Why did this happen? Well, you are not supposed to leave those questions unanswered and say, you go die and burn in hell. That's the approach of a religious mind. Only one thing can be true. It can't be two things at the same time. Could it be that we have not properly taught the nature of the God of the Bible and some over time in history have come to represent him to a people and have stolen their heritage, stolen their culture, stolen their stories, stolen their wealth and all that? Have to come to a time where these are conversations we are not afraid to have. We engage in those conversations, we have those conversations, we look at them right in the eyes and explain those conversations. We go back and teach it. We understand that the God of the Bible is a God of justice, but over time people have used him. Pastors have used his name to sleep with people and to defraud people and all that. We separate the person, whoever, and that doesn't mean there are no good people. We learn to separate the fallacies from the truth. And what that means is that we become a faith that takes accountability, that we are not afraid to say, yes, in his name someone did this, but that still doesn't change who he is. I'm saying that the last day church must learn to have difficult conversations, not sweeping everything under the carpet. I see a very big similarity between an abusive home and the religious mind of an average minister in the last day church. And the idea is that let's sweep everything under the carpet. Oh, you, you are falling from faith, get out and just burn. And the Bible says some of you are going to fall off from faith and all that. We don't have the love, we don't have the patience, we don't have the heart, we don't have the boldness. You know when we have boldness? When we fight ourselves. You, I dare you to have the boldness to engage these people. And then sometimes you think you have the boldness, but you lack the character. We've come to the point where you cannot engage without insulting and all. So I, I, I, I, I'm shining light somewhere that there is a reality we are trying to escape from. And if we don't understand that, to every one person you see in the public stage that is falling off these things, there are millions around just listening to you and now questioning within. Some things, and you know, I don't know if you notice, but we did because we took data that from the moment we began to have intellectual conversations in Declassified, the quality of nonsensical podcasts around the nation are beginning to drop. I'm not saying they have stopped because everyone wants to do what people engage. So I see ministry beyond church. Oh, we have the fivefold ministry to edify the saints, to build them. Oikodomio, that's the Greek word used there. Oh, I understand understand that. But there is also the kind of approach to those who are lost. Some will not even have the mind, the patience and all that to want to hear someone. They hear Pastor Deron and all that. You want to ask yourself, why have we been able to— you know, something really remarkable happened in Light Nation over the past years. The population you see across our churches are population of people who have not been to church in 10, 20 years, 15 years. Some who have given up on church. Sometimes the mistake we make is that we want everybody to look the same. And what that— what that— the implication of that is that they are only going to be able to influence and affect the same kind of people. So over the years, we've not gotten the concept of ministry the way we should, and that has opened the door for the enemy to come invade our children, hijack them, and done so many things, introduce them to different strange cultures around the world, hijack governments. And you know, some of you still argue I'm surprised it's still an argument in this century. You still argue that maybe Christians should be involved in politics. And the idea is not even whether Christians should be involved in politics, particularly not Christians who see Christianity as a religion, because there's therefore no difference between them and even those who are our tribes. They do the exact same things. We've seen pastors in politics who steal. We've seen them. So it's just the exact same thing. I think it is those that the kingdom is formed in their minds. Not just wearing the badge of Christianity and using it to bully and all that. It is those who understand exactly what God should do, and sometimes they are not even Christians, and the history of nations have shown us that. So my concept of faith is I believe, I believe without a doubt that Jesus is the way to heaven, and without him no one will see the Father. You can't question that. You can't question that. And they say, by what yastik? And that's why it's called faith, that everything the Bible has said is true. And these are inspired words by the Holy Spirit, and everything written is inspired and is true. I believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven, and without him no one can see the Father. I believe that Christianity is more than a religion, and I believe that ministry is more than the church walls. There is what we must do. To influence and change culture and change things, but we must get involved in everything that people see and shape the way they think and behave. Some people believe that Christians should not get involved in movies and all that, but your children are watching movies of homosexuals and are becoming one. Why? Because anywhere light vacates, darkness becomes the automatic reality of that place. You're welcome. Er, shh. I think this is the point where I get to have a very, very deep breath. Someone once asked me that what's my biggest concern about Nigeria right now, and I said pain. That's my biggest concern. Nigerians are resilient people all over the world. Anywhere we find ourselves individually, we form the cadre of some of the best professionals around. To find some of the best doctors, some of the best nurses, some of the best engineers. But I think systems have been built over the years that has broken our spirit as a people many times over. And that has put us in the place where we cannot respond any other way than from pain. The pain we go through as a people has affected our comprehension. We It has normalized trauma. We live in it, we breathe it. And you can't blame the people who consistently system combat to break their soul again and again. The deliberately orchestrated system of chaos, the deliberately orchestrated system of lack, the engineered poverty, the engineering of illiteracy, in the northern part of Nigeria and some also other regions, so we don't, um, just imprint it in one region. Um, the social media engineering and all the things that have happened over the years. So when I look at my people, Nigeria, I see a people who love their country but don't know how to love it anymore. And the issue is that in this kind of situation that we have found ourselves of people. It is difficult for anybody to come and even bring perspective that can shape and shift and bring the nation to the right place we should be without the person himself or themself becoming demonized first. Is— I look at the things we don't know. I think you cannot correctly understand what is going on in Nigeria and correctly interpret and diagnose it until you are at least a student of geopolitics to some extent. Because that's when you understand that sometimes what you see is not what is, and what you think they are doing is not exactly what they are doing. Who benefits from our misery? Who benefits from our pain? Who benefits from our lack? What's the interest of the international community? Are elections real? Do they count? Who decides who rules? Who decides who reigns? Who benefits from the fact that you have the worst people leading you? I don't know what your age is, and I don't know the number of cycle of election you've experienced, but the question is, who exactly benefit from having the worst people lead the best minds on earth? And when those people come to look at an election that is flawed and call it free and fair, you're still not surprised. So when I look at Nigeria, I see a dangerous blend of innocence— innocence about what is going on around the world— and pain. And that's a difficult thing because with pain you become irrational. With innocence, you don't even know who to fight. So for me, when I look at Nigeria, some of the questions I ask myself is, where do we start from? Knowledge sounds interesting, but the knowledge you see can't teach someone who is in pain because they'll be too irrational to listen. They fight it once it doesn't look like what they think. And the danger of that is that we have become like crabs in a bucket. Everyone keep pulling another person down till everyone is destroyed. So sometimes I think and I ask myself, how many more cycles do we have to go through? How many years will it take us as a people to learn the most basic lesson? For instance, lessons as simple Bola's, all man for himself. Nobody's coming to save us. And that's difficult to teach because even the people that you call your people have failed. So the question is, what do we do? Do we look inward for leadership? Do we have? Who are those who have the boldness to lead? If they come out, will they be believed? Because media has become more than just a tool for information. It's now a tool for engineering the minds of the people. So what that means is that if somebody comes with the will, the desire, the boldness, the wisdom to help the country get out of the quagmire, it is very easy for the same person to be demonized using media, getting extractors to extract things that can cause controversy. And the same people that the fellow is trying to get in line and put their head out for before become the first that say kill him, this and all that. So there's a concept, there's an adage, and the adage is this: you cannot kill a dog if you have not given it a bad name. And one of the things powers that be understands is how to give the dogs bad names so that when the dogs begin to bark, you call it disturbance, not warning. So Nigeria is a very perfectly architected nation of potentials that has both equally strong enemies within and without who have ulterior motives and are ready to sink the nation down. And, um, the pain that we feel— what's the way out? I think my first recommendation for my country will be that we need to heal. And let me tell you what that means. We have become predictable in the sense that it doesn't matter what you shout at on media, it's not that deep. The moment the next thing comes, the attention switch, and that in itself is heartbreaking because what that means is that those who want to put you in that position will always give you things to talk about. A political aide can come out and give you a character to talk about. The next time somebody's giving you something else to talk about, and then so they understand that they just keep driving you through the tunnel. Maybe, and even what I'm saying is risky because again it can be interpreted from the lens of pain, maybe the question is when will we be tired? When will we find out that some of the things we are saying are not working? When will the average Nigerian find out that your average influencer is bought and they can just give you things to talk about and you just keep ranting and talking? And that will be the reality as long as the pain is what rules and drives us as a people. The things happening, are they painful? Oh yes, the kidnaps, the killings, the insecurity, they're painful. Sometimes I ask, where are the people with the knowledge? Not noisemakers, not those who are trying to build their social media algorithm with opportunistic trends and will make fun of everything. I'm talking about sacrificial geniuses, those who understand where we are going, can see ahead, are concerned, have the temperance, have the wisdom to lead and to guide the people. And they're still around. It bothers me. I'm close to tears at this point. I think fundamentally, apart from pain, the biggest problem of the average Nigerian is innocence. You are just so innocent that you believe everything. If a social media influencer knows what will get your attention, what would they give you? How about the government paying them to divert your attention? When was the last time we really had the boldness to— I'm here in Kenya, by the way. I've seen many things about being here. Anyways, that's story for another day. You don't have to answer everything. And I've seen several things happening here, and I've seen young generation of people who have the might to always step out and say, we are not going to take this as a people. They don't fight people They don't blame, they don't point fingers, they just do what they have to do and face what they have to face. I think that particular might in us as a people is broken. So what happens is that because we don't have that might, in a way to look strong, we look for low-hanging fruit. And the fact that we keep shifting grounds and the subject of conversation keeps shifting every week and sometimes almost every day has positioned us as a people that cannot be respected. Because it doesn't take us anything to move on and discuss something else. This conversation that can bring solution can become a trend for another one week. Fight it and do all those things. And some of us who have been fought also understand it's not that deep. It's just a matter of days. Everybody gets something else to talk about and move. When people get to that point nobody takes them serious anymore. And they have put themselves in the place where they are going to have to need more noise and more of that to get the respect. So what happens to this nation of possibilities and potentials? How did we get to this point? We got here when good people were intimidated and bullied into silence. We got here when people who don't know much had louder voices than those who can help, and the voice of those who can help will not be believed because they'll be disregarded and discarded. That's how we got here. We got here when the average youth become buyable, when their attention span grew shorter. That's how we got here. We didn't get here in a day, it's taken us years. Decades of distractions and of wiring and engineering to get to this point that we are. It's taken us decades of not being sincere with ourselves, lowering the standard of whoever voice and who does in society, and intelligence are becoming scarce because it doesn't get attention, and foolishness becomes paraded. It took us all those times to get here. The question The question is, if we continue, what kind of nation will our children meet? That's, that's, that's a very important question. What kind? What kind of Nigeria? What kind of country? What will they meet as intelligent, as intelligent? Who will be their influences? Who will shape their minds? And another very important question I ask myself is whether or not we are ready for what we are crying for, because if we are all beneficiaries of corruption, we will not be glad when the real change comes. And I speak that about all of us, all our institutions, everything we have built, all of us. So I believe that Nigeria is a nation that every African country on the continent is waiting for to take our firstborn position and begin to lead in the things you should lead in the perspective. Have a president who doesn't just want to do roads and build hospitals, but one who also understands the systemic decimation of African countries who understand the game, one who loves the people genuinely and want to improve their quality of lives. I think we are going to see that nation, and I think it's going to take a lot from all of us, and we are not just going to put that in hope. Till we come to the point where we see that we all have a role to play in building such a world, we have contributions. What we endorse, what we laugh at, what we cheer, what we— one said, this is one of the most powerful quotes I've seen, "I'm not afraid of your boos because I've seen what you cheered." When we get to that point where we become disciplined as a people, The world doesn't make sense, doesn't make collective sense, and we are not going to platform ignorance and foolishness. I think when we begin to individually change as a people, it will accumulate to general national transformation. So Nigeria is that giant that has been kept as a dwarf intentionally and systemically. May this not just be words we hear, may we run with it and drive change with it. You're welcome. Um, the subject of our continent Africa is a very interesting one. I always love to, um, refer back to two very powerful works amongst all of this that has shaped the way I see not just Africa but Africans. And the first is the works of a man called Frantz Fanon. Frantz Fanon did research work in the 1950s, and I want to believe categorically that Ngugi wa Thiong'o, or Late Ngugi, built on the work of Frantz Fanon in many regards because of the consistency of the thought process. Fanon was able to postulate that the effect of colonization on the African mind is a psychological a wound. Having studied the behavior and, um, of those who have been colonized, and he said this is nothing less than a psychological wound. Um, Watiangu also pointed to that in his work, The Colonization of the Mind, where he saw also was able to show that it's a form of injury. It's a kind of injury that puts you in the place. Because when we look at the stories, it's not just so much about, um, um, the things that were stolen and the gold that was robbed, the diamonds, the cobalt, the coal, and all those stuff. I think the most important thing that was stolen is the identity. The fact that an average African— not just their identity but also history itself was edited. And a people without accurate sense of history will not be able to preserve the future. In fact, they will drive the future towards the mistakes of the past. So when I look at Africa as a people, I still see littered all over the place the wounds of colonization, the injury of all those things. And when I talk about colonization, I'm talking about the things that have happened over the years. And now we must understand that that it's both internal and external. I mean, some countries, the insiders have proven to be worse than the outsiders in respect to what they have done to their people, how much they have stolen from their people, the killings to their people, the brutality. The action of those terrible people seem to have in a way justified that we deserve to be treated the way we have been treated by those with the outside. So you're a student, you can understand colonization, but there's also, um, post-colonization reality. So Africa, um, I see Africa as that continent that holds the world together but is intentionally sat upon by the powers that be, first to make sure across all nations. You have the worst leaders. Most of these are not just worst leaders. They are not just worst leaders who, um, are in a way trying to do what they are doing. They are assets, and they have no choice than to obey their masters. So the case of Africa now, Is an interesting one, and I still believe that we have a very long way to go in shaping the narratives. You're welcome. This is one of, uh, very interesting questions, and I think, um, in a way It's also understanding the idea of everything in the first place. You know, um, Christians, we like our comfort and, um, The sense of what is generally acceptable, the fear of being the odd one out sends many of you panicking and want to die. You can actually sacrifice anything for acceptance. The idea of ministry in the first place is— first, if you look at what the Bible says, 2 Corinthians 5, We have the ministry of reconciliation. You're not reconciling those who are in church, you're reconciling those who are in the world. Sometimes, something happened one time, I saw some people comment on my post and say, I'm a Muslim but I enjoy listening to AFL and this and all that. And guess what? Christians come bashing at them, bashing them or bashing me and say things like, eh, this and all that. You see, those who are listening to you. What are you saying? That person is simply showing you that I am positioned right where change of perspective can come and the word can reach me. Why should those who are unbelievers be the one who are listening to what he's saying? Why? Why is that not supposed to be the prayer? Oh, it should only be for Christians, then those who are outside can go and die. What are you talking about? The reason we think like this oftentimes is because religion has destroyed our minds. Many people who Think there are ministers who probably have even fought Jesus if they were in this time. You ask yourself and think about it, which category would you have fit into if you were in the days of Jesus? The Pharisee, or those who believe in his ministry, or even among the disciples? Think about the fact that a woman was caught in the very act of adultery according to them. They say caught the very act of adultery. They didn't bring the man that they cut her with pot of God's woman because yeah, it was a world that believed that women alone should suffer for— I know the cultures at that time, they understand. And Jesus stood there at the intersection of culture and faith. Difficult place to stand, not because of those who are in the world, but because of those who said they are the synagogue, those who said— not synagogue, those who said they're the temple keepers, the Pharisees, the priests. They were using religion as a weapon against the woman, but he stood there, wrote on the floor, and then said, if anyone amongst you have not done sin, let him be the first to cast the stone. One after the other, they were convicted in their hearts. Began to drop their stones and then left her. She stood there looking at him. If you look at Hebrews 4:15, for we have not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, seeing that he was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. The only person standing there without sin was Christ. So she looked at him as the only one who can condemn her and destroy her. And he said something very powerful, I condemn you neither. Go and sin no more. Wow. Religion doesn't like that because as far as religion is concerned, she should die. One time a man came to Jesus who had his hand withered, and Jesus said, stretch your hands, and the hand was restored. Guess who had uproar? The Pharisees. Why would you do that on the Sabbath day? They were not looking at the miracles. Why should an apostle be running a podcast? You should be. Hey, sometimes just keep quiet. You wouldn't even know the truth if you see it. And why? Because we are blinded by our idea of things. In the past 3 years, I've written over 27 books, one of which we couldn't even get a printer for because it was over 2,000 pages. I've preached countless number of messages, we've reached millions, done so many things. You can imagine, converted people of different faith. I'm talking about real conversion. One of them was going to commit suicide on the bridge. She was going to jump. Then she decided to remove her phone from flight mode so anybody that sees the phone can reach the family family. From there, something popped up, notification. She checked it, it was me speaking about pain. She sat down, watched it on the bridge. Then she watched the second one, trauma. Watched the third one, talking about trauma. She sat down there. A young Muslim girl began to cry, why is he preaching like he sees me? She came to church the following day with her hijab, with tears. Confessed and gave her life to Christ, we put her in school. Guess who fought? Christians. Say he's preaching, he's preaching psychology, he's preaching trauma. I can bring you over 300 people who have not been to church in the next couple of years who are now solid standing Christians because we dealt with the issue. Through the word, but not presented in your way that you think it should come. But those whose voice, whose message it is, hears and recognizes. The danger of only trying to see God through one lens has destroyed the faith more than anything else. When we're going to leave Abuja, a young lady came to me, and at this point I'm close to tears, and she said, I used to I used to sleep with men, sleep around. Ever since I started sitting under your teaching, I've not been able to do that. She said, look at me. She was in tears. She said, look at me, look at me. This is the third year I've not slept with anybody. I've been serving God. Look at me, she said. I could only think of one thing while she was speaking. This is changing lives. We can share stories, have experiences. One of my mentees was speaking at the conference, and what she said, I've never forget— I can't forget. She said, I was like that woman caught in adultery, and this man has covered me and stood by me, helped me through his sermons. Why is it that when God is in the business of restoring shaping a generation. The people who are far to see and sad to see are those who believe that they hold the mic, they are ministers. You can't switch sides and the devil begin to use your zeal because there's no love in your heart. The purpose of light has always been beyond the midst of light. It is to shed light in the midst of darkness. And I want to say this emphatically, just in case what we are doing is offensive. We have a movie in the pipeline, and that can offend you, and we are not stopping. We are in now doing many things beyond the normal. So as I read the Bible, I look at Jesus. He wasn't conventional. Who are those who said crucify The religious workers at that time, why? They don't have the mind that can discern what God is doing part-time. So I'm speaking this to the younger people coming up. Get out. Your purpose here Don't let people truncate it because they keep washing you with their opinions and impressions. And sometimes they will even try to demonize those you should hear. I can mention different ministers in Nigeria that they demonized in those days and growing up and say this one is a devil, that is an antichrist, one is this. And many of those who demonize them have now since then changed their stance and are now preaching the same thing or never come back to say say we were wrong. So what I say, as ministries, we have the ministry of reconciliation, primarily souls. We have the ministry of invading our world with light. Let your light therefore shine. Matthew 5:14. You are a light, you are the light of the world. A city that is set upon the hill cannot be hid. We have to become that light that is not afraid. Sometimes we like many things. We like, take it now, fire everybody's Catherine Chiesa and this one, and say the anointing of Deborah, the mantle of Esther, Joseph, Daniel. Sometimes I look at that and say, do you know what a Daniel looks like if he attends your church? That Babylon didn't have an office that was churchy for him. He was the head of sorcerer and enchanter. Do Do you know what a Daniel looked like in practicality? Do you know what a Joseph looked like in practicality? He was formerly in prison for trying to sleep with his boss's wife. Don't forget that you would have called his name and say he's therefore disconnected from us. Do you know what an Esther looked like in practicality? The program she went for where she was elected as a queen was not a prayer meeting. Do you know what a Deborah looked like in practicality? That she could stand as a wife and then as, as a mother in Israel and then lead men to war. In our world where the only thing we give women is announcement to take, sometimes we like the sound, but do you know what the practicality look like? Oftentimes we don't because the practicality will confront our religious bias, our societal construct. I've seen many times they've tried to inter— Paul went to preach somewhere, they began to call him and said, the gods have come amongst us. Does that mean he was? So when we bring some perspective and begin to show wisdom in certain areas, and those who are in the world saying, oh, he's on our side, he's deconstructing— that's another word I've heard. Then you Christians, because you have so much hate, hatred in your mind, quickly say, yes, he's doing that, yes. And look at what you do with your Christianity every day. You only fight, you never agree on anything. Well, you don't have to agree. Use that energy to reach the unreached, and let's stop making Jesus look like a bully. This is me introducing you to AFL World, and everything I've said here, I said what I said.
You're welcome.
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